for Coquerel, the Barnier camp is undergoing “accelerated decomposition”

POLICY – “ In the end, the government cannot win. » Examination of the budget is suspended in the National Assembly, after six days of intense discussions in the chamber and a series of scathing setbacks for the executive. The debates are due to resume on November 5, still on the first part, that of recipes.

In the meantime, what lessons can we learn from this first round at the Palais Bourbon? HuffPost questioned this Sunday, October 27 Éric Coquerel, the president (La France insoumise) of the Finance Committee, at the helm during this eventful week. He returns to the victories (for the moment symbolic) of the New Popular Front, the tenacious specter of article 49.3 and the “ accelerated decomposition » from the Barnier camp, to which he promises new routs.

HuffPost: Consideration of the budget is suspended in the Assembly until November 5. You wanted to make this budget “NFP-compatible”, mission successful?

Eric Coquerel: Yes, the dashboard is tracked. We still have big measures like the “Zucman tax” which stopped on Saturday evening just before the midnight cutoff. We will end up with 60 billion in revenue recovered only from the very rich and the very large companies. From this point of view, this is what we expected, with the transposition into session of what happened in the Finance Committee. Except that we are witnessing an even more accelerated decomposition of the presidential camp. It was the RN that saved them on several occasions, such as on the reestablishment of the wealth tax (ISF).

Exactly, how do you explain the absence of “common core” deputies throughout the week? The RN regrets a rotten strategy…

In reality, there is no “base”. When you have a maximum of 25 deputies present at all the debates it is something of a twilight. And there is no “common” either, it must be emphasized. These are groups divided among themselves.

There is no strategy, they try to survive hour by hour as best they can, sometimes dragging out the debates. But these are stopgap measures for a camp in defeat, without a pilot on the plane and with passengers who sometimes go to one side or the other of the plane.

Laurent Saint-Martin announces a resumption of debates for November 5. How do you see the future? Is Article 49.3 inevitable?

The government will not make 49.3 for the moment, otherwise it would have already done it to stop the damage. But the motion of censure to which they would be exposed scares them very, very much. They chose to avoid it and prefer to go towards defeat. Part one of the budget (on revenue) will be rejected. This is an admission of weakness: they admit that their best solution is to beat their budget in order to leave the Assembly without too much difficulty and hope for a better outcome in the Senate.

Consequence of this schedule: part “two”, on expenditure, risks not being studied in the hemicycle, due to lack of time. Is this a defeat for you?

It will be discussed in the Finance Committee, it will also be a political moment. The first reading of a text is a round of observation, the government and its supporters largely lost it: They were on the ropes and tried to slow down the blows. If we had discussed the second part, we would have defeated it, and the text would have gone to the Senate. It's on the way back that this will play out.

The government will precisely regain control of its text, whatever the strategies and future events (49.3, deadlines too long, or text rejected in the Assembly). Will your victories only be symbolic?

I don't think so, because at the end of the day, there will have to be a vote in the National Assembly, of whatever nature: on the budget, on a motion of censure following a 49.3 or a dry motion of censure if they try to pass with ordinances. And I think in the end they can't win it.

It's a minority army and in defeat, you can't hold a government on that basis. Two things struck me this week: it is the RN which is coming to the aid of the wealthiest, and which is trying to take leadership from the right. And the Macronists who recorded defeat. For them, the responsibility goes back to the Élysée. If this fails, it is the president who will be called into question.

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